Religion: Collision in Latin America

For generations, the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America was
identified with the rich and the few "good families" who controlled
most countries. In the 1960s, Vatican II's pressures for social reform
began to exert dramatic changes. Today, the Catholic clergy has been
drawn into conflict with conservative regimes throughout Latin
Americaespecially in Brazil and Paraguay.

As one result, progressive priests and laymen are being hounded in
Brazil, the world's biggest nominally Catholic nation. Last week the
Vatican issued an open warning to Brazil's military rulers. "We cannot
remain deaf to the appeals...